With Sarah Cahalarn, Keith Anthony Higham, Nick Smithers, Adam Lea, Mark Slowey, Plested & Brown, Victoria Hay, Ian Street and Juliet Lundholm. Musical Direction – Leigh Thompson, Choreography – Robyn Simpson, songs by Barb Jungr.
PRESS 'This production is in the best tradition of true English pantomime. It features excellent performances including the exquisitely attired dame, Monique Malmaison (Mark Stowey), and the wounded, lonely Beast (Keith Anthony Higham, pictured); and those by the local young performers who bring energy, wit and professionalism to the crowd scenes and the beautifully choreographed dance routines. The cast also includes the local New Greenham Arts own off-the-wall duo of Clare Plested and Adam Brown. Gaunt and eccentrically attired as a French maid and a cod maitre d', they bring a wacky anarchy to everything they turn their collective hands to. Excellent too, is the bad wizard Scaramouche (Nick Smithers).The changes of scene are managed very cleverly by the movement of curtain backdrops by a somewhat manic character (Ian Street), who uses each scene change as the opportunity to offer (in vain) to play his accordion, and by a glamorous female assistant (Juliet Lundholm) who coquettishly announces each new scene displaying the information on a hand-held bill board. And there is a very considerable succession of wonderful scenes: scenes such as the slapstick routine of the unsuccessful loading and unloading suitcases from a barrow; a grand finale worthy of a West End musical, and an absolutely fabulous dining scene where actors, food and crockery whizz manically round the table culminating in a frenzied dance on the table itself. The pantomime comes highly recommended and continues at The Corn Exchange' Oxford Times
'The show was sparky, bright, extremely funny, and entertaining for everyone from beginning to end.' Newbury Weekly News
